Do You Think People Are Being Mislead As To The Origins Of Christmas?

Question

There's this absolutely ridiculous argument flying around everywhere that CHRISTmas is a pagan holiday. In what way do you think that the church deciding to celebrate Christ's birth on a previously established holiday make it a pagan holiday? Yes pagans use to celebrate a holiday on this day. When a bunch of these people converted to Christianity, they decided to celebrate Christ's birthday on a day they use to celebrate on anyways. Could this be a symbolic way they decided to show they are transformed by Christ? Who knows? But what I do know is that Christmas has pagan roots no more than my birthday has independence day roots.

please read what I said... I recognize it started on the same date but that doesn't make it the same holiday....

Answer 1

Christmas is a pagan holiday. It was celebrated before the birth of Christ, which incidentally was not in December.

Answer 2

The argument under question is that Jesus's birthday was not actually on December 25th... it may have been far earlier in the year, perhaps in the spring.
Later on, church leaders decided to gloss over this fact and assign the official date for Christmas as something very close to the winter solstice to complement the many pagan religions that celebrated the "birth" of the sun and the return of light that occurs at the solstice. The church leaders recognized that this celebration held extremely powerful symbolic significance for most people, and therefore deliberately to piggyback on this symbolism by promoting Jesus as the Child of Light, bringing light into a world of darkness, etc. (Like using sparklers as candles on the birthday cake on the independence day birthday).

That's why some people claim Christmas has pagan origins. It's not about the pagans converting to Christianity; it's about the Christians using pre-existing pagan symbols and rites to promote their own celebration. What you want to believe is of course up to you, but just wanted to clarify what the "pagan's" argument is.

Answer 3

I suppose your point depends on how you want to define "roots".
Many of the practices of Christmas (tree, yule log, etc.) have pagan roots.

In the 3rd century AD, the Roman emperor issued the Edict of Toleration. Subsequently, Christianity was made the state religion. Do you think that such a proclamation instantaneously converted the subjects? We can expect that most people made professions of faith, but profession is not possession. What were these people to do with their great feasts and celebrations, especially the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Thus the emperor declared two major religious holidays which corresponded to the times of the old celebrations. December 25th (for centuries celebrated as Saturnalia) was declared as the birthday of Christ (it’s fairly certain Christ was not born in December) and a special mass would be held on that day (hence Christ-mas). The old holiday of the spring equinox was declared as the celebration of Christ’s resurrection. The old festival’s emphasis was on the worship of the goddess of fertility – which is where we get the Easter bunny.

Answer 4

Yes. I pretty much agree with what you said. Mind you, I think other holidays that fall or fell around that time may well be great holidays and worth celebrating too.

I DO think that Christians got the date of Christmas to some extent from the Roman Saturnalia, which fell on December 25th as well, but Christmas traditions are fairly different from Saturnalia traditions (which involved a lot of role reversal).

Ditto for Halloween and a bunch of other religions. I've met fundamenalist Christians who refuse to celebrate Halloween because they think it's Pagan. Yes, there were pre-Christian holidays at that time, such as the Celtic Samhaim. But, a pope from the Dark Ages actually put a lot of Christian holidays on the calendar that had similar practices to pre-Christian ones, but which were done in honor of the Christian God, saints, etc. instead of pre-Christian Gods and spirits. Halloween is short for "All Hallow's Eve" and it's a Catholic holiday. It's followed by All Saints Day and All Souls Day. On All Souls Day, Catholics are supposed to honor those who have died. At Samhain, the Celts may have also honored those who have died. But, then there's nothing un-Christian about doing that as near as I can see. Halloween's also just fun and for most people it's just a secular holiday.

So, I really wish that fundies in particular would get off this whole kick of being against traditional holidays and just have fun (some of you seem like you're not getting enough R&R to me %-) - but I'm just teasing).

Answer 5

I don't often call people idiots, but you're truly an idiot.

Stating the Christmas is based on pagan roots has sooooo much more to do with the date. It has to do with just about every other aspect of all the traditions associated with Christmas:

The colors, red and green, are the colors of the Holly King (the Oak King dies at Samhain and is reborn at Yule...hmmm....God King is born in the middle of winter....hmmmm)

The tree is directly taken from pagan roots. Pagans used to bring a live tree into the house as a safe haven for woodland spirits during the cold night.

The use of mistletoe is pagan. The green celebrates the fertility while the white berries directly represent semen, or the potency of the male of the species.

Holly berries represent the potency of the female because they symbolize menstruation.

Gift giving is pagan. During the winter it was commonplace to leave meat, bread, drink and clothing outside your home for any person or animal passing by that needed food, drink, or clothing. This evolved eventually into giving gifts inside the home.

Burning the yule log is directly pagan in origin. Images of what families wanted in their lives with the coming spring - prosperity, health, a good harvest, love - were carved into the log, which was then burned. Saving a piece of the yule log to being a fire the following solstice was considered good luck.

Decorating a mantle is pagan in origin. Pagans often brought fresh greenery (what Christians use for wreaths) inside and laid them across the mantle, lighting candles to signify the fertility that would be returning with the spring, and to symbolize the sun, which appeared for the shortest amount of time at any point in the year.

When the Puritans were running around burning witches, they tried to get everything that we think of as a "traditional" Christmas celebration banned, since they knew these traditions were pagan in origin.

Here, check out this website - an UNBIASED site - and scroll down to Christianity. It gives a nice, abbreviated list of what Christians stole from the pagans.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/winter_solstice.htm

Bright blessings!

)O(

Answer 6

The Pagans were mislead by the early Christians when the Christians built their churches on the Pagan's sites of worship. Not the other way around. No one ever said that Christmas has Pagan roots per se, only that the Christians deliberately adopted the date and places to influence the Pagans. They missed the date anyway! Wanna discuss Easter and the Easter Bunny & Eggs?

Answer 7

The reason that it's referred to as a Pagan holiday is simply because it is. It's a proved fact that Jesus wasn't born anywhere near that day.


The Pagan holiday, of Yule is the day of the birth of the God. It represents the returning of daylight as the days start increasing in lenght on this day. It represents the God's power over darkness.

The fact that Christians chose this day to celebrate the birth of their God was an obvious ploy to christianize pagan Europe. It gave the pagans the ability to retain their holliday, but in a Christian fashion. Celebrating Christmas during another (and thus more accurate) time would have left the Pagans feeling out of touch with their seasons.

One does not simply pick a day out of the air to celebrate a significant event in thier religious history. There is no Christian significance to that day other than the fact that it was chosen to celebrate Christ's birth, so it's Pagan history can't in good conscience be denied.

Throughout history, holidays have been shared and passed down between religions. Gods and Goddess have changed names as they moved between cultures. Gods of one country have migrated to others. The fact that Christ shares a Pagan holiday doesn't diminish his status, and I find the fact that Christians have to be embarrassed over, or deny the heritage of their holiday sad.

Much symbolism of Christmas comes from Pagan tradition. The fact that Christians honor their God with them isn't a travesty. The travesty is in denying that Pagan symbolism is of value. The travesty is in denying the value of the seasons. By whatever name Deity happens to use, it is the author of all.

Answer 8

Sorry to say it, but you are an ignoramus. It is a pagan holiday, the christians have adopted just about everything pagan..all the holidays were pagan sabbats..the candles, the star, the holly, the birth of life (spring-'rebirth of jesus'), everything! Grow up and do some research. Christianity is just a rip off and it was developed to move the masses to a patriarch society away from the balance of male and female that was here and used by the pagans.

Answer 9

1. Jesus was born sometime around September or October.
2. Why would anyone celebrate a birthday two months from the possible time?
3. Nowhere in the Bible does it give a specific date of His birth.
4. Ready for this? Even the Bible indirectly condemns Christmas trees (read Jeremiah 10:1-8)

Answer 10

Its a pagan holiday, just as they built their churches on pagan sites. So they can make people be just like them. The fact is Back then if you did not follow the Christians you died.. Its still happening now but it is a slower death.

The Fact that you know it is a pagan Holiday just shows that you know that Christan's have played on lie on another over and over